Unfortunately, this game got cut short, as my battle partner had to take off at the end of round 2, but I found out a lot from two rounds:

1. Without the Lord selection, magic is almost worthless. 4 dispel dice was decent, except that Vampires get an insane amount of casting, so I was out-classed, and he didn't even break a sweat dispelling my two Daemonsmiths

2. The new rules for the death rocket are freakin' sweet. I'd say it's perfect for what it does: taking out low point mobs. Strength three hits may not do much against the heavy hitters, but it'll take out ghouls, skeletons, etc.

3. As always, bolt throwers rock

4. I didn't get to do much with my Golems; they were flanked on the side by frenzied blood knights with magical movement and didn't survive.

5. Swivel gun seemed to be about right as well. With rolling to hit instead of auto-hits, the point value seems spot-on (good change attaching it to a core unit, btw)

6. Sadly, my annihilators didn't get used either, as the frenzied blood knights charged through the Golems and took them out.

I was well on my way to losing by the end of turn two. Had the vampires been able to run from shooting, I probably would have had a better standing, but that's one of their perks, right? The only thing I didn't like was the magic at the low levels. It felt like any magic users were better left for the 2000+ battles, and I just need to stick with bruisers for anything below that. Was that the intention?